International pianist appeals for Kiev war victims

International pianist appeals for Kiev war victims

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norman lebrecht

October 18, 2015

Khatia Buniatishvili is in the Ukrainian capital to raise funds and morale for victims of the Russian war. She has spent the day with soldiers in hospital.

Her message:

With two Heroes!
Kiev. Main Military Clinical Hospital.
They need our love, attention and support.
Please join us!

Please Donate from any place of the world by Bank Transfer on:
Public Organisation ” Volonterska Sotnja Dobrovolja”:
account number: 26005300692398
Branch #10026/020 JSC Oschadbank
Ukraine, Kyiv
SWIFT COSBUAUKKIE

 khatia kiev

Comments

  • Olassus says:

    This is an artist I have wanted to like. She has joie de vivre, and the curves being in all the right, remarkable places doesn’t hurt. The politics makes no difference to me: pro Ukraine, anti Ukraine, pro Georgia, anti Putin, I don’t care. What does bother me is her musicianship, in spite of technical skill and much sensitivity. She distorts pieces, drawing out phrases here, emphasizing contrasts there. She can’t leave the music to speak for itself. Listen to her Grieg concerto from Toulouse, on YouTube. She doesn’t come close to Grieg’s world. Milks every idea he has, and conductor Sokhiev seems clueless too. Then turn to Rubinstein with Previn, also on YouTube. Suddenly the music is pure, even if the pianist, in ecstasy at 88, is a bit of a pain to watch. No, Buniatishvili has a lot to learn, most of it concerning artistic taste, and she’d be better off studying scores and performance traditions than drawing attention to herself through international politics.

    • All Keyed Up says:

      Her musicianship bothers you? WHAT musicianship??? She doesn’t have any!! She’s an irresponsible keyboard basher, period. BTW, her luscious curves won’t last forever, so yes – she would do well to take lessons and learn what a musical phrase is.

  • Mike says:

    Shortly: Suck it,Valentina.

    • Olaugh Turchev says:

      When she’ll have the courage to go play at the front… Until then.

      • Mike says:

        Don’t quite agree. Miss Khatia has bigger boobs, bigger nose and soon, possibly, bigger number of youtube views. And is on the other side of the front. Ah, the political soap opera in music. With Montero screeching and shreeking about Venezuela we almost have a complete picture of semi-artists getting international attention thanks for their political views.

  • Holger H. says:

    The day people stop calling their chosen party in a war “heroes” and the other side “enemies” will be a memorable day in the history of mankind. Until then: grow up Mrs. Buniatishvili. Cui bono?

    • Erwin says:

      Agreed!

      • Milka says:

        Holger & Erwin what do you call the dead onFlight 17 ?
        What do you call thousands of innocent dead.?
        What do you call an invasion that caused all this ?
        Just curious………….

        • Olaugh Turchev says:

          “On July 20, 2014, Kerry declared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “we picked up the imagery of this launch. We know the trajectory. We know where it came from. We know the timing. And it was exactly at the time that this aircraft disappeared from the radar.”
          Yet
          “As for the missile’s firing location, the Dutch report said the launch spot could have been anywhere within a 320-square-kilometer area in eastern Ukraine, making it hard to determine whether the firing location was controlled by the rebels or government forces.”

          Both statements cannot be true.
          https://consortiumnews.com/2015/10/13/mh-17-the-dog-still-not-barking/

          So Miss Buniatishvili is entitled to her opinion but not to her own facts. Same with you.

        • Erwin says:

          That’s not the point. Ukraine hasn’t been innocent in this conflict either. The point is that people who kill other people for whatever reason should not be considered “heroes”.

          • Christy says:

            So if the U.S. was invaded, the govt shouldn’t defend the country? That’s an interesting concept of defending citizens.

          • Christy says:

            And I’m sure if Ireland flooded “volunteers” and weapons into Northern Ireland as part of a military offensive, the UK gov’t would simply meet these new friends with offers of tea?

          • Gonout Backson says:

            It’s the usual problem with victims, you know. They’re never innocent enough.

  • Neven P. says:

    Until I saw the performance of Bach’s Concerto for Two Pianos by Katia and her sister on Youtube, I never thought that Bach and porn could go together in the same sentence. But Katia is smoking hot, no doubt… Maybe we should watch her videos the same way people do J. Lo.’s – turn off the sound and only watch.

    • Eddie Mars says:

      Bach never wrote any concertos for any pianos.

      Sums her up perfectly.

      • jaypee says:

        Yeah, you’re right… Glenn Gould, Murray Perahia, Rudolf Serkin, Sviatoslav Richter, Robert and Jean Casadesus, András Schiff, Edwin Fischer… What do they know about Bach?!?

        Thank you, Eddie, for sharing your wisdom with us…

        • Eddie Mars says:

          Ignorance is bliss eh, Pee?

          • jaypee says:

            You can’t answer with something relevant so you insult me instead.
            How mature.
            Thanks again for displaying such wisdom.

          • Eddie Mars says:

            You can’t find a Piano Concerto written by Bach. Because your knowledge of baroque music is a total zero.

          • jaypee says:

            *sigh*… Anyone knows that Bach didn’t compose piano concertos. Anyone ALSO knows that there’s a long tradition of performing Bach harpsichord concertos on the piano. The fact that you seem to either ignore that fact or pretend that pianists who play these concertos are bad shows your ignorance.

            BTW, concerning my knowledge of baroque music… Wanna discuss Emmanuelle Haim performance last night of Haendel Xerse at the the Theater an der Wien? How about waiting until Wednesday evening so I can give you my impressions of Monteverdi Incorronazione di Poppea, also at the Theater an der Wien?

            Based on your comments, we can say that your knowledge of good manners and social skills is below zero.

          • Eddie Mars says:

            Bach wrote no piano concertos. Handel’s opera is called ‘Serse’ and its title has no X’s in it.

            Your knowledge of baroque music is as thorough as your knowledge of Ukraine.

            If you think anyone is impressed by the sneering blowhard personality you present here, you couldn’t be more wrong. You’re the epitome of a loudmouth know-nothing puke-mannered Ugly American. You do your homeland down with every syllable of witless trash you scrawl. Keep it up – you and Alvaro are doing our job for us! Bwaaahahaha!

          • jaypee says:

            “Bach wrote no piano concertos.”

            Where did I say he did? Please give the exact quote.

            “Handel’s opera is called ‘Serse’ and its title has no X’s in it.”

            http://www.theater-wien.at/index.php/de/kalender/production/182407
            Oooops!

            “Your knowledge of baroque music is as thorough as your knowledge of Ukraine.”

            Where did I say I knew anything about Ukraine? And you know nothing about my knowledge of baroque music. You obviously have serious issues.

            “If you think anyone is impressed by the sneering blowhard personality”

            The only blowhard here is you. Your comments prove it.

            “You’re the epitome of a loudmouth know-nothing puke-mannered Ugly American.”

            I’m not American. English isn’t even my first language. Mind to tell us where you come from so we can also make childish generalizations?

            Get help.

  • Erwin says:

    Christy, again, that’s not the point. I know that armed conflicts are sometimes unavoidable, unfortunately.
    But the “These Heroes need our love and attention, please join us” story of Buniatishvili, the glorification of soldiers’ acts of war (whether they are Ukrainian or Russian) gives me a bad taste in the mouth…as you can see on her Facebook site, this is just another of her cheap publicity stunts.

    • Christy says:

      I have no idea if it’s a publicity stunt. But if not heroes, how would you classify volunteer soldiers who weren’t trained for warfare suddenly bombarded with bombs and missiles, expected to defend cities of hundreds of thousands of people – with barely any resources, entirely unprepared. Yet they stayed at their posts – even volunteered to go to the front lines to try to stop tanks from flooding over the border. They were the only defense. The alternative was retreat only, leaving minorities to be forced out or imprisoned as they have been in Crimea and Lord knows what else.

      What would you call these men and women – who also delivered food to blockaded towns, medical care, etc. If volunteer soldiers – some entirely unpaid- are not heroes to those they defend at enormous cost to lives, what are they?

      Let’s remember – Ukrainians did not step one toe on Russian territory.

      • Erwin says:

        If this is really how it went and what they did, it’s of course another story. I googled the name of this organization and couldn’t find any info, also I relied on Norman’s sentence “She has spent the day with soldiers in hospital” so I assumed they are professional soldiers…so how do you know all this?

        • christy says:

          “f this is really how it went” ????

          It was well reported. Russian citizens – who admitted on camera to being Russian citizens – led an invasion of Russian army “volunteers” “on leave” from the Russian army, who also along the way, according to Putin – seriously – bought weapons at a military supply store. That was Putin’s answer at a press conference as to how Russian weapons ended up in Ukraine. “There are lots of places for volunteers to buy weapons.” The volunteers reached upwards of 20,000 men, on Ukraine’s sovereign territory. First, the occupied and took over Crimea. Ukrainians NEVER FIRED A SHOT. They saw the bloodshed that would ensue and were ordered to withdraw from a portion of their territory.

          Then, these Russian “volunteers” showed up in Eastern Ukraine and began shelling cities. The citizens, seeing no army coming to help them, began forming militias. The oligarchs with huge business interests – who had already lost their property and had their businesses confiscated in Crimea – began hiring mercenaries – trained and experienced soldiers from the Israeli Army, and from conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. The various volunteer battalions – which Ukrainians from all over flocked to join (Western reporters were embedded with some of them so it is documented) – then defended the area. Eventually, Ukraine was able to deploy at least some army, thanks to a – no joke – crowdfunding initiative. Documented in numerous articles. THIS is how Ukraine defended itself against Russia.

          The fact that Russia did not win the East and then “march all the way to Kiev,” as Putin claimed was possible at a press conference – is a testimony to the heart of these volunteer battalions and the citizens who became, in many cases, resistance fighters, as well as, frankly, the ineptitude of Russian soldiers. They should have won. Easily and clearly. And they lost. Most unfortunately for them, they left a brand new Ukrainian Army in their wake, as the Ukrainian war machine was created, making new weapons and receiving training from US and EU army trainers, as well as new planes, tanks, etc., sometimes free, from allies. Russia now has the biggest army in Europe beside it. Ironically.

      • Eddie Mars says:

        What would you call Pravy Sector fascist thugs who served in a paramilitary unit that isn’t part of the Ukrainian Army – the so-called ‘Azov Battalion’, which has as much legitimacy as the IRA Provos???

        But your piano-plonking friend is courting that murderous scum.

        Heroes? Here’s the handiwork of your ‘heroes’. Shelled in their own home town of Lugansk.

        https://youtu.be/WadnbWUz17U

        • Gonout Backson says:

          When you’re at war against a powerful enemy, you don’t pick your allies.

          Ask Mr Roosevelt in 1941.

          • Eddie Mars says:

            Well, since you were the one to invoke Godwin’s law, I’ve got another WW2 phrase for you, from 1945… “We Were Only Obeying Orders”.

            People like you and Buniatishviili n 1945 could still “justify” scenes like this… or claim they’d been falsified to slur the Reich:

            https://youtu.be/rcQldzU8hQk

            Oh your “brave”, “brave”, “heroes”, Backson?!?,

          • Gonout Backson says:

            @Eddie Mars
            I did not “invoke Godwin’s law”. I invoked a specific, strategic situation where, fighting one deadly enemy, you have to make alliance with another enemy. Ukraine has no choice.

            As for your videos, the answer is simple: war is ugly, but Ukraine didn’t start this one. Russia did. Send these videos back to Mr Putin.

          • Holger H. says:

            Russia started this war? Where have you been the last years? Does the quote “Fuck the EU” ring any bells with you? “5 billion US $ for the (anti Russian) opposition”? ring ring?
            Still no clue?

          • Eddie Mars says:

            You opened your piehole about Roosevelt in 1941. It was YOU who brought in the reference to Hitler, Gonout Backson.

          • Eddie Mars says:

            No stomach for videos of atrocities committed by your Pravy Sector *filth*, Backson???????

          • Gonout Backson says:

            @Holger H.
            Oh, apparently I have been where you haven’t… In the real world.

            “Fuck the EU” doesn’t kill you.

            The funny story of the 5 billion dollars has been ridiculed as it deserves to be: 5 bln covers 20 years, makes something like the Met’s yearly budget. Please. Don’t insult the Ukrainians more than you must, they’re not THAT cheap.

            For the hundredth time: how much for one Ukrainian spending three months out in the cold, being beaten and shot at.

            “Anti-Russian” opposition? Last time I checked, Ukraine was a sovereign country. Russia has absolutely nothing to do there. The Ukrainians decide for themselves. And they have, in two democratic elections, recognized even in Moscow. The “Russian” party, if you insist in calling it so, made less than 10% in the parliamentary one, 3% in the presidential one.

            You mean Victoria Uland had even more money and paid 10 000 000 Ukrainians to vote Poroshenko?

            And then the war started – by the Russian attack on Crimea. March 21st 2014, followed by a fake referendum.

            In case you haven’t been warned: Russia stopped pretending it had nothing to do with it almost immediately. It doesn’t even “protest” so much anymore it hasn’t invaded the Eastern regions.

            See you next time – don’t forget to bring the same BS.

          • Gonout Backson says:

            @Eddie Mars
            After almost two years – is it still the best you can do?

          • Eddie Mars says:

            Christmas coming soon, Backson. Maybe someone will give you a book about Ukraine – so that you don’t have to rely on John-Bomb Insane McCain for your ‘knowledge’ of a country where you’ve never been, but insist on sticking your know-nothing nose.

            Or perhaps a new pair of jackboots.

          • norman lebrecht says:

            Cut the vitriol, please.

    • Gonout Backson says:

      “Whether they’re German or Polish” : would you say that on Sept. 1st 1939?

      Their country is under attack by a military superpower. Part of its territory has already been annexed by this superpower. Another part is occupied.

      Enough for me to call these guys “heroes”.

      • Holger H. says:

        Bullshit. It takes a lot of ignorance, but maybe from far away in America it’s easier, to be delusional. Ukraine’s role in the global covert war of the US for control over Eurasia and for Russia’s destabilization is well known. Actions speak, not propaganda wirds…

        • Gonout Backson says:

          FYI : I’m nowhere near the US, but thanks for the unexpected compliment, I didn’t know my English was that good.

          There is no such thing as “Eurasia”, at least not in the political sense, unless you mean Mr Putin’s fantasies. You’ll find those in the “The 1000 year Reich” box.

          As for your “covert war”, your respect for the Ukrainian people, their sacrifices and their democratic votes ist überwhelming.

  • Milka says:

    The sad truth is that the Poles were abandoned to the russian barbarian after the last
    great war as are the Ukrainians abandoned to the russian barbarian by the west to-day.
    Thinking on” murderous scum ” Mars might reflect on the word” invasion”.

  • welington mesquita says:

    Maravilhosa sua iniciativa Khatia.
    Sou do Brasil. Envie com detalhes o modo de doar para os feridos da guerra. Não entendi bem neste site.
    Welington.

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